In a communication system, a switching device may receive frames (packets) containing data or control information on one port, and based on destination information contained within the frames, routes the frames out another port to the destination (or an intermediary destination). Many applications using the communication system, such as process control applications and machine control applications may have a large number of streams. Moreover, these applications may be latency critical to meeting control loop frequency requirements.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and useful to provide an improved way for frame buffering and arbitration in a network.